Long Beach Poly is not the home of moral victories. Jackrabbit fans are a notoriously dissatisfied bunch, so there’s no doubt that most of them will look at Friday night’s loss on the road at San Diego Lincoln and simply remark that Poly has now started the season 0-2 following a 36-20 defeat at the Hornets.
Those fans would be right—Poly is off to an 0-2 start for the second year in a row, a rarity over the last four decades. However, there was so much growth from the previous week’s listless offensive performance in a 14-3 loss to Leuzinger that there was plenty to be satisfied with—even if first-year head coach Justin Utupo understands his team’s fan base enough to know that they won’t be happy with a loss.
“There’s no excuses,” said Utupo. “There’s a standard and we have to live up to that standard. Hats off to Lincoln.”
The truth is that for as much as Utupo doesn’t want to make excuses, it was a chaotic day for the Jackrabbits. The team took two buses down to San Diego, leaving Long Beach at 11:30am for a 7pm kickoff. One of the buses blew a tire on the 73 and was stranded for three hours until rescue arrived. The other bus made it to San Diego safely, but ended up pulled over by police for driving without a license plate on the back of the vehicle. The whole team ended up arriving in San Diego less than an hour before kickoff, half of them after a long delay on the side of the highway meant they wouldn’t have time to eat before the game. Kickoff was pushed from 7 to 730pm, and had it been pushed to 8pm the result might have been different.
Instead, by 8pm, the Jackrabbits were in a 28-0 hole that they never climbed out of. In addition to Poly’s lethargy to start the game, Lincoln was about as turned up as a team could be. The defending Division 1A state champions were opening a new stadium after two years of playing all road games, and NFL legend and alum Terrell Davis was on hand to help dedicate the new facility.
Not surprisingly, they came out with a lot of energy—especially after Junior Curtis took the game’s opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown as a way to christen the stadium.
The onslaught didn’t stop there, as running back Rashad Robinson powered his way for three touchdowns in the first quarter as well, putting Lincoln up 28-0 after the first quarter.
“They came out with a lot of energy to open up with their first time on this field, and we allowed them to get off to that start,” said Utupo. “We dug ourselves into a hole.”
Robinson scored again midway through the second quarter to push the lead to 36-0, skunk territory for the Jackrabbits. But as the road crowd began to turn up the temperature on their team, the Poly players finally responded. They shut out the Hornets over the final two and a half quarters of the game, forcing four turnovers on downs, and scoring three unanswered points.
The offense finally came to life, as QB Deuce Jefferson settled in and began to play catch with his receivers, piling up over 200 yards and two TDs. Running back Elijah “Bubba” Dawson is a talented sophomore who looks like the future of that position for Poly, as he sparked their first touchdown drive of the season with a long run and a long catch, then punched it in from a yard out.
Jefferson spread the ball well and began looking downfield for the first time this season, completing passes to eight different receivers including touchdowns to Kamarie Smith (23 yards) and Jayden Coley (26 yards). Five different receivers were the recipients of multiple passes.
The Poly defense did not look sharp in that first quarter, but like the offense settled in. After giving up 28 points in the first (eight of which were on a kick return), the Poly defense gave up one touchdown after that opening frame–with Jaden Hernandez putting up three sacks, Deon Jackson and Donte Wright Jr breaking up passes, and several players recording tackles for a loss as they bottled up a Lincoln rushing attack that ran rampant in the first 12 minutes.
Still–it was a loss.
“I appreciate that you gotta look at the positives, but there were way too many mental errors, way too many mistakes,” said Utupo. “We have high expectations–regardless of who’s here, who’s available, who’s active. These guys have to do their job. The coaches have to do our job to fix it, clean it up and help us move forward.”
Poly will host Tustin next Friday at Vets at 7pm.
